


Doctor-Patient Confidentiality

by potionsmaster



Series: The In-Betweens [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Comfort/Angst, Doctor/Patient, Everybody's a Comedian, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Med Bay is a Sanctuary, Sarcasm, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 06:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4949836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potionsmaster/pseuds/potionsmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr Chakwas' POV after Feros.  Companion piece to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/4278192">Only A Check-Up</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doctor-Patient Confidentiality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mareel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/gifts).



> Ok, so I was hemming and hawing about whether I should post it to AO3. It was living on my tumblr, and then I figured: what the hey. Enjoy the pop-culture references, lol. This one is all on mareel, lol. Thanks, love! Couldn't have written it without ya!

_**Doctor-Patient** **Confidentiality**_ , by potionsmaster

 

~*~*~*~

 

“Alright, Shepard, if you would please get on the table and lay down? We can get started…”

 

The commander hefted himself on the table, tucking the thin little gown underneath his bottom while gingerly settling on the hard surface.  He rolled his head to look at Dr Chakwas.  She scanned the tall man with her omni-tool; first the epidermal layer, then the muscles, sinews, and tendons, and finally the skeletal structure.  

 

“Find anything I should know about?  Any baby aliens that are going to burst out of my chest or anything?”

 

The doctor smiled thinly as she deactivated the ‘tool and pulled out her stethoscope.

 

“Not that I’m aware of.  Why, have you had something attach itself to your face lately?”

 

“No…I’m trying to be funny.”

 

“Keep trying, Shepard…You’ll get there…” she patted his arm fondly while she placed the stethoscope on his chest.  “Deep breath….and again.  Again.”

 

Shepard glanced past her and stared at the lieutenant preparing a tray of blood work supplies a couple of yards away.  She stifled an eye roll at that; those two were almost inseparable when they were off duty.  

 

“Once more, Shepard…”

 

Come to think of it, they were in close proximity even when they were on duty, too.  She had heard some comments from other crew members who had noticed the same.

 

“You’re going to feel some pressure, but it shouldn’t be anything you can’t handle.”

 

Shepard’s bright blue eyes focused on her green ones as she palpated his abdomen.

 

“Why, Karin…didn’t know you cared,” he grunted around her hands.  She chuckled dryly as she helped him sit up.  She placed the stethoscope on his back and he flinched as the cool metal touched his skin.

 

“Deep breath again…And of course I care, Shepard. Again. It’s why I’m a doctor, not a physicist.  Once more, please…”

 

She peeled off her blue vinyl gloves after tucking the stethoscope around her neck again.  Shepard kept stealing glances over at the oblivious other man.  She started making notes on his chart.

 

“Everything appears to be normal, but I still need that blood sample to make sure those spores aren’t affecting you.  No parasites that are going to chomp through your sternum that I could find, either…do you have any questions for me?”

 

She looked at him expectantly.  He was still gazing at Alenko; the lieutenant was chewing on his bottom lip and had his brow furrowed while he compared needle gauges.  Dr Chakwas snapped her fingers in front of the commander’s face.

 

“Earth to Shepard!”

 

He looked startled as he brought his attention back to her.

 

“I’m sorry, what?”

 

“I said everything seems normal and did you have any questions for me,” she sighed in exasperation. The commander had the decency to look sheepish.  

 

“Sorry…I must’ve been distracted.  Lost in my own thoughts.  Uh, I think I’m good on the questions.”

 

“You sure you don’t want to ask her about green urine?” Alenko piped up, an uncharacteristically big grin on his face. She arched her eyebrows in surprise.

 

“…. _green urine_?  Have you been experiencing this?  Do I need to have you give a sample?”

 

Shepard huffed a laugh, eyes twinkling as he looked at the lieutenant again.

 

“No; Kaidan’s just messin’ with me.  Inside joke, Doc.  Don’t worry about it…”

 

“Hmm.  Well, if that’s the case, I’m through with you; you’re all Kaidan’s now.”

 

Shepard swallowed hard, ears flushing.  She made her way to the front of the room and at her desk while Kaidan wheeled the tray over.  The stack of chart datapads was daunting, as were the piles of blood work results she needed to log.  She pulled Tali and Vakarian’s charts, comparing their BUN/creatinine, ratios, bilirubin,  and WBC in particular. 

 

Going through files extracted from the colony on Feros had yielded some interesting results in the documentation of how the Thorian spores affected the colonists.  It seemed that the spores were binding themselves to the red blood cells and were distributed all over the body in that manner.  They were then getting deposited in the liver and other fatty reserves, causing a spike in the white blood cell count as the immune system attempted to fight the intrusion.

 

Infected colonists showed behavioral changes within 24 hours of exposu-

 

“ _I vant to suck your blahdt…_ ” 

 

“I can think of a few things for you to suck….like an egg…”

 

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the playfully grumpy exchange.  Shepard had managed to keep it fairly well hidden from most of the crew how much he didn’t like having blood pulled. 

 

“Really, Commander?” came the indignant response.  She couldn’t make out Shepard’s murmured response and went back to making notations on the charts.  It seemed that the spores started to mutate and change the host’s own cell structure, which then fooled the immune system into its normal state; it no longer recognized the spores as foreign.  It was elegant and effective.

 

“Is this where I turn my head and cough?”

 

The commander’s voice had a playful lilt to it she wasn’t used to hearing.  She blinked at the datapad in front of her, trying to ignore the two men.

 

“You wish…” came the chuckled response.  Not the reaction she had been expecting from the reserved lieutenant.

 

“And you know it.”

 

She blinked again, frowning.  Speculation on how close the commander and the lieutenant were seemed to come and go as a popular scuttlebutt topic, but she tried not to put too much stock in it; rumors and theories were just what they were.  She herself teased Kaidan about having a shadow whenever he came to medbay for a migraine or patching up after a ground mission.  

 

“That’s a bit impersonal for my tastes, though…”

 

She shook her head, trying to get back in the mindset of scientific documentation.  They must be better friends than she thought.

 

“Oh,  _fuck me…_ don’t tell me when you’re about to stick it to me, huh?  The foreplay’s getting tedious.”

 

She snapped her head up at that, looking over her shoulder at them and blinking yet again.  Kaidan was trying and failing to cover his laugh with a cough. She peered at them more closely, deliberately trying to listen.  Marines were notorious for having raunchy senses of humor as a coping mechanism, but she had never seen either of them display that tendency so freely.

 

Shepard had his eyes locked on the lieutenant’s face, right hand gripping the edge of the exam table to the point where his knuckles were bloodless.  The biotic cast a quick look at her, then turned back to Shepard. There was a controlled panic on the commander’s face that eased a bit when Kaidan glanced at him with small smile and another murmured response.  

 

“You know me; I always have to make things more difficult. What about after a nice dinner out on the town?” the commander asked breathlessly, “Would that be personal enough for you?”    She furrowed her brow.  That almost sounded like an actual invitation.  Kaidan raised an eyebrow, concentrating on the blood collection.

 

“Watch it, Jo-uh, Shep. I’ll take three more cc’s just because you’re being an ass. I’m sure I can find some more tests to run.” 

 

 _That_ was definitely unusual; the lieutenant didn’t mind being called by his first name for the most part, but Shepard was always  _Shepard._

 

“You wouldn’t!”

 

“Try me, you big baby…” Kaidan gave the CO a teasing grin as he put a cotton ball over the puncture.  Dr Chakwas mentally shook herself, gathering up Vakarian’s results. Shepard was the last patient anyway; she could afford to let them linger.  The blood had to be run in the hemodex machine, besides.  She got up from the desk and tossed her stylus next to the datapads; they’d keep ‘til later.

 

She paused when she turned back to the men; Kaidan had a warm, soft smile playing on his lips. Shepard’s hand was covering his to hold the cotton ball in place, thumb brushing over the biotic’s gloved hand.  Tension was visibly draining from the commander as they gazed at each other.  She hated to interrupt.  She grabbed Shepard’s chart as a last minute thought.

 

“Ahem…”

 

They both looked at her while she approached, schooled neutral faces masking the affectionate expressions they had. Kaidan pulled his hand away and picked up the vial of blood with a sigh.

 

“I’m going to give Garrus his results. So far everybody’s has come back normal. I trust you’ll page me on the overhead comm if you need me?”

 

“Yes, ma'am. Nothing I can’t handle.”

 

“Good to hear, Lieutenant. Now if you gentleman would excuse me,” she said, handing him the commander’s chart with the hint of a smirk on her face. She promptly turned on her heel and walked out of the medbay.  She called the elevator and mulled over what she had seen while she waited.  She decided she’d ask Wrex and Tali what the latest gossip was, but keep what she’d seen to herself.  Doctor-patient confidentiality was the rule, and by jove, she would not be the one to break it.

 

She wondered if Kaidan knew she was referring to more than just Shepard’s medical exam before she left the medbay.  If anybody could handle Shepard and all the storms that came with him, though, it was the quiet lieutenant.  She stepped on the elevator, unable to stop the grin from spreading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
